A stock is a legal document that shows you own part of a business. When you buy stock, you actually buy a piece of the company. In other words, you buy shares of the company. Usually, hundreds or even thousands of people will own a piece of a business. When a company needs money, it sells its shares. In a small business, the owner might be said to own all of the shares. But when a business gets to a certain size, it may need money to grow, and the easiest way to get that money is to sell shares.
Most stockholders don't have much of a say in how the business is run because they don't own much of it. You have to own a lot of shares or work with a lot of smaller shareholders to make a difference. Buying stock is more of an investment than a way to run a business these days. You just buy shares of the company and wait for it to grow. This will make the stock's value go up, and when you sell it, you'll make money. Or, you could just live with the share of the company's profits that you get based on how many shares you own.
People buy and sell stocks at the stock exchange. The New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange, and Nasdaq are the three most important stock markets in the United States. Stock brokers or Direct Investment and Dividend Reinvestment Plans are used to buy and sell stocks. You can buy stock directly from the companies instead of on the market, thanks to the plans.
When it comes to the American stock market, Wall Street is a well-known and important place. The Dutch people who came to New York in the 17th century built a high fence. This street is named after this fence. The fence was there until 1685, but the street next to it was always called Wall Street. Philadelphia is where the history of the American stock exchange starts. In 1770, this was the site of the first stock exchange. The first New York stock exchange opened two years later, but it did not do as well. In 1817, people from the New York stock exchange went to Philadelphia to find out why it was so busy.
This made the New York Stock and Exchange Board stricter and more formal. The crash of 1929 is another important part of this history. The Great Depression began because of this crash.
